These are the last of Warren Buffett’s and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) holdings as of June 30, 2008: Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) more than 3.51 million shares in multiple lots US Bancorp (NYSE:…
These are some of the top analyst downgrades or negative calls we are seeing this morning, and you’ll notice that brokerage firm stocks are again the targets of many downgrades: Citigroup (C) Cut To…
A company called Verisk Analytics Inc. has filed to come public via an initial public offering in a securities sale of up to $750 million worth of class A common stock. The company did…
Banks that claim they are off-loading risk may be making a case which is a bit overblown. Recently, Citigroup (C) and RBS (RBS) dumped loans to private equity firms including Blackstone (BX). The LBO…
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) is feeling some pressure on analyst rating actions. Many traders and investors have thought that Goldman Sachs would remain immune from the entire credit crunch, immune from trading…
No one has really worked out how to wall-off significant risk in one division of a financial services giant from divisions which are "safe" and operating smoothly. UBS (UBS) skinned its investors alive again…
Every month, Wall St. hopes that bank write-downs will slow or stop and every month matters seem to get worse. It looks like July will turn out to be no exception as a deteriorating…
Morgan Stanley (MS) thought it could pull a "monkey see, monkey do" act with NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The investment house offered to buy back $4.5 billion in auction-rate securities using much…
Bear Stearns was not the end of it. Institutional investors think at least one more large firm will fail, probably over the next six months. Although those surveyed did not name a company, at…
NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants blood from the banks that marketed auction-rate securities but have not made settlements with him. In his mind, Wachovia (WB), Morgan Stanley (MS), and JP Morgan (JPM) stand…
The Fed has been testing investment banks to see what will become of their balance sheets and liquidity if the credit markets signal another hurricane watch. According to the FT, "Bankers with knowledge of…
With the domestic deal market looking pretty dry at the moment, the private equity kings who made billions taking company after company private over the last few years are seeking new ways to make…
Now that Citigroup (C), UBS (UBS), and Merrill Lynch (MER) have agreed to buy back a total of about $40 billion in auction-rate securities, Wall St. will have to hazard a guess as to…
The SEC informal investigation of Bank of America’s (BAC) recently acquired Countrywide Financial has been in progress for months and now there’s a new development. And it’s not good for Bank of America: the…
The safe-house for money center banks closed and locked its doors long ago. The mortgage-related paper crisis rolls on like a mighty river and its latest victim is RBS (RBS). But, victim is the…